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Adventure junkies have The Amazing Race, drunken college kids have The Real World and fist-pumping Italians have Jersey Shore. For drag queens, the holy grail of reality television is RuPaul's Drag Race. And for the new season (premiering at 9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1 on Logo, Time Warner digital cable channel 438), Rochester drag queen Pandora Boxx is ready to work it.
The 37-year-old Rochester resident (real name Michael Steck) will compete with 11 other drag queens in various challenges for a grand prize that includes $25,000 cash. Steck is no stranger to television, having appeared in the 2003 VH1 documentary Boys Will Be Girls as a Madonna impersonator and on an episode of Ricki Lake in the late 1990s. However, Steck says Drag Race represents a new high point.
"This would definitely have to rank No.1," says Steck of being on the show, which filmed last July and August in Los Angeles. "It was really fun and a lot of work as well. I really loved working with RuPaul and, generally, I loved all the queens on the show."
Steck, who grew up in the small town of Olean, Cattaraugus County, has been acting since he was a kid. He credits performing and creating his Pandora Boxx alter ego at age 19, when he also came out as gay, as helping to make him "a better person."
We recently talked with Steck by phone from L.A., where he had traveled for the Drag Race premiere party.
You tried out for the first season of the show but didn’t make it. What made you go for it again?
I figured that it couldn’t hurt to at least try. In my video, I did what I thought I was missing the first time around. For my first audition I really just focused on being funny and really didn’t put much of myself in there. In the end, I thought, 'This is the best I can do,' and I was really happy with it felt great either way.
At 37, the show's Web site lists you as the oldest drag queen in the competition. Was there any advantage to that?
No, there wasn't. [Laughs] All it did for me is let everyone know how old I am. It was a little bit of a sting to read that they posted my age online. I was like, "Aww geez. Did they have to put that?"
I think most people would agree you look much younger.
Well, thank you. I take that as a huge compliment.
In your intro video online you say, "I didn’t come to this competition to make friends." Did that change once you started filming?
When I saw the video I was like, "Did I really say that?" In context it really wasn’t as bitchy as it seemed. I came onto the show because I wanted to win and I wanted to get my brand of humor out there. I wasn’t opposed to making friends, and I did actually meet a lot of great people who I’ve still been in touch with.
The trailer for the show makes the competition seem pretty cutthroat. Is that really how it was?
There was a certain element of that. Everyone had seen the first season. So we had some sort of idea of what to expect. Everyone had the gloves off and was there to be competitive. But at the same time, everyone was really nice to each other as well. If someone needed something, we would loan it to each other. But it’s drag queens. You're going to have trouble if you put 12 of us with different personalities in a room.
When you left to do the filming last summer, you couldn't tell anyone where you were going or that you made the show. That must have been weird.
It was like going into the witness relocation program. I told everyone I was going to Vancouver to be in an independent film. I had a lot of nerves the whole time. You're held up in a hotel for a few days before you even meet any of the other contestants. Then you’re in a room with people you don’t know and all of a sudden RuPaul walks out. As RuPaul said on the show, you don’t want to f**k it up. If you make a mistake, millions are going to see it.
What was your main motivation for wanting to be on the show?
Definitely for exposure, but I like the show as well. There really aren't that many outlets for drag queens on that kind of level.
What can people expect in the first episode?
There's lots of drama. [Laughs] For the first challenge we had to make curtains, and Kathy Griffin was one of the judges. I'm definitely nervous to see it.
